really solid g&m article on this developing story. moving past the "hapless Minister of Public Safety," as he refers to toews, this article is more about the subtleties of what the leigislation would mean.

Quote:

So, with thanks to Mr. Toews for volunteering for pinata duty, it's time to move past the minister. Vic Toews' flying circus is a cartoonish distraction from troubling legislation. The dangers hidden in this bill are subtler than they might seem.

Contrary to what you might have heard, the new bill, C-30, doesn't invite police to monitor your every online move without a warrant. It does, however, require Internet companies – loosely defined – to cough up your name, Internet protocol address and a few other identifiers if the police ask for them, even without a warrant. This means that the police could conceivably collect a pseudonym you've been using to comment on websites, present it to the relevant company, and say, “Who is this person?”

By trading pseudonyms for IP addresses, then IP addresses for real names and addresses, and repeating the process, police could get a pretty clear picture of what you've been up to online. (The list of exactly which identifiers police can present to Internet service providers in exchange for information has yet to be nailed down.)